Eyewear, such as corrective eyeglasses, sunglasses, sport goggles, protective work glasses and the like, is used by virtually everyone in modern society. Beside the large numbers of people who require corrective lenses for normal vision, even those with normal vision will at times use protective glasses for hazardous work, sunglasses for eye comfort or sport glasses or goggles for skiing, shooting, cycling or other sport activity. When not being worn on the face, such eyewear is generally not convenient to carry or store. For example, unless one's clothing or handbag has sufficient pockets or space, the storing of a set of eyeglasses or goggles therein is space consuming and inconvenient. Eyewear, and particular bulky, fragile eyewear, is hard to carry or store in handbags or in the pockets of clothing, and few wish to carry the eyewear in their hands on a prolonged basis.
The foregoing problems have been partially alleviated by the use of eyewear retaining bands formed of straps or cords which pass about the neck of the user and engage the eyewear, usually attaching to the bows of the eyewear. When the user elects to remove the eyeglasses from his eyes, they can be comfortably suspended about the user's neck for reasonable times by using such retaining devices.
An accompanying annoyance associated with eyewear and which is somewhat aggravated as a result of retaining band usage is that eyewear suspended from the user's neck gathers dust, pollen, and other contaminants and requires more frequent cleaning. Because the user who carries the eyewear on a retaining band usually has few pockets or little handbag space available, such user is also unlikely to have any suitable cleaning cloth to clean the lenses of the eyewear. As a result, when the finely polished surfaces of glass or plastic eyeglasses, sunglasses or other eyewear become sufficiently dirty or contaminated that they need cleaning, often the only devices readily available for cleaning are relatively coarse handkerchiefs, paper towels, napkins or other fabrics which are so roughly textured that they may scratch or damage the lenses or lens coatings. Since many modern lenses are formed of plastic or include specialized coatings for sun control, ultraviolet filtering and the like, the surfaces of these lenses can be particularly vulnerable to damage when improper cleaning media is used.
While suitable fabrics for the cleaning of fine lenses are well known and commercially available, there is currently no convenient and unobtrusive way to carry such lens cleaning cloths so as to always have them in close proximity to the eyewear when needed and to easily keep such a lens cloth clean. If one chooses to carry such a cleaning cloth, it will usually be carried in one's pocket or purse, and the initially clean cloth quickly becomes contaminated with dirt and abrasive material or can be easily forgotten, lost or even accidentally destroyed during laundering. A device is needed to keep such a lens cleaning cloth available with one's eyewear, to assure that the cloth is protected from dirt and contamination until needed, and to store the cloth conveniently and preferably unobtrusively.
Many eyewear retaining devices are known, but perform only a retaining function by holding the eyewear on the user's head or about his neck. U.S. Pat. No. 5,384,605 discloses the use of an eyeglass retaining band to also carry a sweat band. U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,216 to Troy E. Mitchell teaches the inclusion of a stretchable eyeglass case in the center region of a retaining strap. U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,072 to Goldenberg discloses the use of a retaining strap which includes a pouch positioned intermediate the ends of the strap and into which the eyeglasses can be stored or other small items such as keys or money may be inserted. None of the prior patents suggest or disclose any cleaning apparatus which may be conveniently, protectively and unobtrusively stored in association with an eyewear retaining band so as to be readily available for use with one's eyewear.